Intel Mobile Pentium III 500 ULV socket: Micro-BGA2

What the Mobile Pentium III 500 ULV is

The Intel Mobile Pentium III 500 ULV is a 500 MHz single-core soldered mobile processor from January 2001. It runs one P6 Coppermine core at 500 MHz with no turbo, so 1 core gives 1 thread. Cache is 256 KB of full-speed L2 with 32 KB of L1 on a 180 nm process. Power is rated near 8.1 W max in a Micro-BGA2 soldered package with 495 balls on a 100 MHz front side bus with a 5x multiplier at 0.975 V to 1.1 V.

Ultra-low voltage cuts the envelope to a fraction of standard mobile parts, which is why the 500 ULV suited mini laptops and embedded boards with tiny batteries. Intel sold the ULV 500 in January 2001 with other ultra-low Coppermine mobile parts. The chip supports MMX, SSE and deep power saving states.

A 500 MHz clock with a full cache and an 8 W class envelope suits sub-notebooks and terminals with SDRAM and passive board cooling. The sub-1 V core sips power at idle. That is why the 500 ULV shipped in ultra-portable boards with compact chassis.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The 500 ULV is soldered to Micro-BGA2 boards and cannot be replaced. It fits ultra-portable boards with BGA2 solder lands, a 100 MHz bus and a BIOS that lists Mobile Pentium III ULV 500. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers pairing rules.

Mini SDRAM boards are the natural match. Boards built for the ULV 500 carry the soldered chip with a board spreader for the 8 W class. No socketed board accepts the ball package.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Memory is SDRAM through the board chipset at the 100 MHz bus rate, set by the board. The soldered CPU has no memory controller. Boards commonly pair low-power SDRAM with ULV layouts.

A 100 MHz front side bus ties the soldered chip to the chipset, while expansion hangs off the chipset. No PCIe lanes originate on the die. Thermal design is board-level with a spreader for the 8 W class and no fan in many layouts.

Upgrade paths

There is no CPU upgrade path from a soldered 500 ULV. The chip cannot move to a faster part. A board or system replacement is the only move.

For socketed planning, a Mobile Pentium III 900 such as Intel Mobile Pentium III 900 shows the socketed line on Socket 495. The Micro-BGA2 page lists the soldered range. Note: the queue row lists 5 W; this page uses the verified 8.1 W max.